Monthly advice on how to write your child's Letter of Intent,
also known as a Life Plan
A Life Plan, or Letter of Intent, is individualized to your child. Is your child still in school? Perhaps they are just starting preschool, or maybe your child is in a vocational school or college and is getting ready for meaningful work. If your loved one is a student, you'll need a section in your Letter of Intent about education.
Where does your child go to school? Is it a special school or your local public school? Who are their school friends? What kind of program does your child have? What kind of assistive technology does your child use in school? What is the history of changes to your child's program and what were the reasons for those changes? You have in your head a book's worth on this subject.
If something were to happen to you, is there someone else who knows the answers to these questions? Is there someone who will be able to make the kind of reasoned decisions you would make? Whoever takes over in your absence will have the best shot at making future decisions if they have access to what you know. That's why you need to write it down. You don't have to write a whole book, though. Writing something is better than writing nothing at all.
Below are two sample excerpts from a real Letter of Intent that was written for a child in elementary school.
Sarah still attends the Horizons School. She loves her school time and gets visibly excited at the start of each year. Sarah is to be included in her fourth grade class with Mrs. Jones. Sarah will again be assisted at times by an aide and pulled out when needed for therapies and for special attention from Mr. Raynor. We may decide for Sarah to repeat a grade at some point, but we'll do that in consultation with the Child Study Team at Horizons.
Sarah's current Individual Education Plan (IEP) is located in the file drawer in the garage. Sarah's IEP is negotiated each year in the spring. Whatever services Sarah requires from her school must be itemized in her IEP. Nina Zimmerman is Sarah's new case manager, starting in September of 2003. Sarah is entitled to busing to and from school, although we don't plan to use it this year. We found the bus to be unreliable in the past, so right now we're driving her to school.
Sarah's evaluations show delayed cognitive levels, but it's not helpful to have low expectations for Sarah. We believe her current cognitive functioning is close to age three. Sarah's teachers have worked hard to help Sarah learn to read. She recognizes many sight words already and has learned the basic phonics rules. She can handle most "easy reader" books for first-time readers and reads on a third grade reading level. We are extremely excited about Sarah's reading progress and Sarah is, too. She loves to read and does so at every opportunity. Sarah is progressing well with addition and subtraction facts and can handle any combination of numbers up to 10. She has difficulty with science and social studies concepts.
Haven't started your Letter of Intent yet? Start with education! You've probably thought of something urgent about school that you wish you had written down someplace. Write it down, put it between a front and a back cover, and declare it your Letter of Intent. Don't worry if it's skinny right now. It will grow.
You could start with one of the above sections. Another section could be a discussion of your thoughts on inclusion. You probably have a rationale for whether or not your child receives their education in an inclusive setting, or to what degree. You may also have some thoughts about how this will change in the future. Write them down!
You could write yet another section explaining who the best contacts are in your school. Will your child's caregiver know which folks really know about your child? Perhaps it's the special education teacher. Or maybe your situation is less common in that you do not care much for the special education teacher, but the case manager or the classroom aide seem to be in tune with your child. Then says who those people are—in your Letter of Intent.
This is a common occurrence. Parents often become experts at the law, advocacy, building relationships, and IEP's. Who could possibly replace you? But these Life Planners newsletters are about the very real possibility that something could happen to you, and that someone else will have to replace you.
The truth is that nobody will do as good a job as you could, but that doesn't mean it's not worth trying to educate them. If you have in mind (or better yet, in your Letter of Intent) the person or persons who will be taking over your child's care, it's time to start educating them now.
Share your child's IEP with your designated guardian. If at all possible, take them to an IEP meeting with you. By law, you are allowed to bring anyone you want with you to an IEP meeting. Keep up conversations about the details of your child's schooling.
Another line of attack is to write a section for your Life Plan about your past history with advocating for your child, and perhaps a summary of IDEA law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), the federal law about your child's schooling.
You don't have to write it yourself if you don't want to. Obtain some good materials on this subject, and include them with your Letter of Intent.
And don't forget—slow and steady wins the race.
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Last Modified: Wednesday, 06-Feb-2008 07:22:58 PST Betterway Press
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